They Came From Outer Space
by YinWriter
Summary: What would it have been like if the Shroobs had invaded Earth? Follow some clever (and maybe NOT so clever) OCs as they rebel and try to stop the invasion for good. (UPDATED)
1. Chapter 1: NASA Needs Help

**Author's note: Hello, everybody! This is my first official story on this site, so I'm still learning about how to manage it and things like that. This is a fanfiction that I started writing three years ago under the headcanon, 'What if the Shroobs had invaded Earth instead?' The story mainly focuses on my OCs, so sit tight and prepare for a wild ride!**

**Narrator: P**

"Oh man! I got slammed on my test!" I huffed.

"What did you get?" asked my neighbor, who also happens to be my best friend. We were outside on his lawn and we had just gotten out of jail- I mean, school. The sun shone brightly in a cloudless blue sky, and the spring breeze blew past us.

"I got a B-. My parents aren't going to like this!" I sighed.

"Don't feel bad, Piper! I got a C. Plus, half the class failed! Mrs. Carenott is _brutal_ with this kind of thing!" He was trying to cheer me up… Cool. I smiled a little and he grinned back.

Kyle moved to Jacksville a while ago and we've been friends ever since. We help each other survive being outcasts at the worst middle school ever. He was pretty shy at first, but it only took a few icebreakers to get him to open up. Anyway, if you're wondering why we're outcasts, I'll explain. You see, I can't stand anything girly. Period. The three biggest school gossips, Leanna, Esmé and Courtney, always bug me, most likely because they're all such airheads that they make the North Wind by talking. I'm just sayin'!

And then there's Harry and Harvey A.K.A The Knuckle Bros. Just because Kyle's kinda scrawny (okay, _really_ scrawny…), they always pick on him. What's worse is that most of the time, when they're shoving him and tackling him and all that, they're doing it to 'impress' me. Gross, right? Ugh, those two idiots are all brawn and no brain!

Anyway, in short, Kyle and I are best friends and nothing's going to change that! I honestly don't really know the main reason I took this guy under my wing. Maybe it's because he's my neighbor. Maybe it's because he knows how to make me laugh. Maybe it's because he's never cared about how I look. I mean, he's different then the other boys at the school we go to. He's…Well… I can't really describe the feeling I get when I'm around him. It's… Let's just continue!

"We're going to be watching a movie in class tomorrow. I guess that's pretty cool!" Kyle pointed out.

"It's my favorite movie, too! 'Independence Day'!" I giggled.

"I've never seen it," he replied.

"You'll love it, dude!" I have a habit of calling people 'dude' whenever I get excited. Can you really blame me this time, though? I mean, it's Will Smith we're talking about!

With no warning whatsoever, Kyle's mother, who always tells me to call her Amanda, threw her front door wide open.

"You two! Come inside quick!" she hollered, her light blonde hair falling over her shoulders. Exchanging glances, Kyle and I followed her inside.

"What's up, Mom?" my friend asked. Amanda pointed to a television in the living room.

All three of us stared in awe at the news report being broadcasted.

"NASA has reported that something has scrambled up one of their satellites up in space. They are advising the general public not to panic and they say that they'll keep us informed as they piece things together. In other news, Nicki Minaj is judging American Idol!"

"Wow… Something screwed up a satellite? Was it a meteorite?" Kyle wondered.

"A meteorite would've come into Earth's atmosphere by now. Same for space-junk. It's a mystery alright!" Amanda stated.

"What could do this? I'm sure that there's a logical explanation for this," I mumbled to myself.

"I can't think of anything else, Pipes." My friend looked as perplexed as me. ('Pipes' is what he sometimes calls me for the heck of it.)

"Maybe it's an alien!" Amanda joked.

"Could we try to be realistic, Mom?" Kyle sighed.

Later that evening, I asked my parents, Lynn and Dave, about the satellite too. It was the same story with them: completely clueless. That night, when I was in bed, I pondered this incident for an hour or two before pushing the thought out of my head. I rolled over and tried to get to sleep. Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw something next door. Rubbing my eyes, I opened my window, which is directly across from Kyle's bedroom.

"What?" I whispered as I stuck my head outside. He turned off the flashlight he'd been flickering.

"Sucks that we don't know Morse code!" he said.

"It's kind of late, dude. Could we maybe get to the point?"

"Look up," he told me. I did.

"Where?" I asked as I scanned the star-filled sky. A few seconds later, I froze as I laid eyes on a blinking far off light.

"It's not a helicopter or an airplane. It's been there in that same spot for a while now," Kyle informed.

"Whoa…Is NASA bringing their satellite down?" I stammered. The light was a mix of yellow, purple and green. It was strange!

"I don't know. I've never seen a light like that before!" my friend replied.

"Look, it's late at night. Can we talk about this in the morning?" I asked as I stifled a yawn.

"Sure thing, Pipes. Goodnight." Believe me, it wasn't easy getting to sleep after that!


	2. Chapter 2: A Regular School Day (Not!)

**Author's note: This is where the action actually starts to happen! Yay...**

**Narrator: K**

"Remember the satellite, dude?"

"Yeah! Do you think a comet hit it?" I tried to sneak past Harvey and Harry as they were speaking but I had no such luck. It wasn't my neighbor's fault she gave us away.

"Piper! What hit the satellite?" Harry boomed.

"How would I know?" my friend retorted.

A girl with long blond hair and a LOT of makeup nearby spoke up.

"You aced that, like, _impossible_ science test! You should know!" I hadn't seen Leanna come in, but if you don't see her, you'll hear her seconds later.

"Maybe, if you had actually studied instead of texting, you would've done better! Then again, knowing you, maybe not." Piper sighed.

"What about you, Runt? You know what hit it?" Harvey asked, turning the attention over to me. I felt myself blush as all eyes gazed at me.

"I though a meteorite hit it, but it would've come down by now!" I stammered. The Knuckle Bros. grumbled something and lumbered into class. Leanna huffed and hurried over to join her cronies, Esmé and Courtney.

"I still can't understand what hit that thing," Piper muttered.

"It _must've_ been a comet!" I decided

"Let's leave it at that." With that, we scuttled into Room 2.

The peeling wallpaper was still as ugly as ever as I plopped down at my desk. The room was pretty loud with everybody's chatter. All they wanted to talk about was that stupid satellite. It was crazy! Someone at the front of the room slammed a ruler on a desk a few times.

"Class! Settle down!" That was my teacher, Mrs. Carenott. Her greying hair was pulled back in a tight bun, as usual. It took a few more attempts on her part to finally quiet the room down. "That's better. The satellite is a mystery. I understand that. However, we have a movie to watch and you're all going to have to write me an essay about it by the end of the next two weeks, so let's calm down and get this over with."

"Is the movie Star Wars?"

"Harry, Will Smith wasn't in Star Wars," I heard Piper groan.

All in all, the movie was AWESOME! It was about an army pilot and a scientist who have to work together when huge alien spaceships invade Earth. The aliens were pretty threatening: In the movie, they blew up the Whitehouse! In the end, the two main characters went to Area 51 and flew a crashed spaceship into the alien mother ship. They uploaded a virus and that brought down the shields on the other ships. The entire world countered with a _huge_ attack all together. There were a lot of explosions, I'll say that much! Near the end of the movie, I began thinking about our essay question…

'Using context from the movie and your own experiences and inferences, explain how the movie applies to your life and what we can learn from the movie's main messages.' How the heck was I going to answer that? My mind was blank. I decided to think more about it later. Anyway, something interesting to note is that the aliens actually used human satellites against us! Once everybody realized _that,_ the class went into hysterics!

It all started when somebody yelled, "Hey! That's just like that NASA satellite!" That set off Leanna and the girls, who began to lose it. The boys were no better.

"Class! CLASS! Settle down!" Mrs. Carenott was wasting her breath; nothing was going to quiet them down! I covered my ears and my neighbor had her head buried in her arms.

"We're doomed! We're DOOMED!" Leanna wailed. Piper raised her head to chew the gal out. She cast a glance out the window… and the color totally drained from her face.

"Are you alright?" I asked. She was so stunned that she was speechless. I looked out the window too, and it's safe to safe that I got the shock of my life.

Levitating not too far away from the school was a ship with a silver rim and a purple top with white spots. The UFO had two red windows on the front that looked like eyes. I was stunned. As the realization hit me like a hammer blow, I felt dizzy. MY MOM HAD BEEN RIGHT. Harvey looked at me funny.

"Hey. Runt. What're you looking at?" I raised a quivering hand and pointed. He followed my gaze. As soon as he did, his jaw fell right open. "OH GOSH!" he shouted. Harry looked too.

"What, dude? ... HOLY MOTHER!" Pretty soon, everyone had seen the ship and the pandemonium was a LOT worse!

"W…What IS that?" Piper stammered. "Is that a… Could it be a… That's IMPOSSIBLE!"

"Pipes, it looks pretty real!" I shot back. The teacher was, for once, speechless. Over all the screaming, I heard a panicked voice over the intercom. It was the principal.

"Attention! Attention! We need all of Sun Spring Academy in the gym immediately! Please, everyone, exit your rooms in an orderly fashion!" Like THAT was gonna happen!

I was nearly trampled alive. The Knuckle Bros almost broke down the door! Leanna, Esmé and Courtney were linked in a triangle, screaming their heads off. In the chaos, Piper made a grab for my hand.

"Don't let go! Just don't let go!" she yelled at me. Normally, I'd feel over the moon if she was holding my hand, but right then and there, I was terrified! There was a freaking UFO outside! I clung to her for dear life in the crowd. I was NOT about to lose her!


	3. Chapter 3: The Mutation Situation

**Author's note: So as you can see, the narration flips back and forth between Piper and Kyle, with Piper getting the odd-numbered chapters and Kyle getting the even numbers. This is the format I'll stick with for the whole story (I think!).**

**Narrator: P**

Never in my life did I think I'd ever lay eyes on an unidentified flying object from outer space. Nobody had any control whatsoever. In the hall, I noticed all of the other classrooms trampling each other trying to get out. Clearly they'd seen the UFO too. In the chaos, I desperately kept my hand locked in Kyle's. I was NOT about to lose him!

Somehow, by a miracle, we arrived in the gym. In there, the screaming was amplified. It also didn't help that it echoed.

"What do we do? Piper, WHAT DO WE DO?" my friend cried in horror.

"I… I don't know!" I was shaking so bad that I could barely speak. The gals were nearby, still shrieking uncontrollably. This time, I honestly didn't really blame them. The teachers and principal were at the front of the gym, trying to calm everybody down. Like that was gonna work!

Overhead, an explosion wracked the whole gym. I looked up in time to see _five_ flying ships destroy the roof with bright pink laser beams!

"Look out!" Harvey yelped. We all fought to get out of the way of the falling debris. The main entrance to the gym was now blocked by what had once been the roof but the fire exit was still okay.

"C'mon!" I shouted, dragging Kyle by his arm. His legs kicked in after a few seconds, and we were both hurrying as fast as we could go.

The Knuckle Bros. noticed the exit as well, and they were ahead of us in seconds. Leanna, Esmé and Courtney saw it too and were soon trailing behind us. Another pink beam of pure alien energy came down, missing me by mere inches. Instead, it hit a guy named Carl. I shielded my eyes as he screamed. Less than half a second later, the scream stopped. When I looked again, I had to bite my lip to not shriek. The beam had mutated him into some kind of weird and gross purple fungus. All around us now, more and more people were being hit and mutated. Mrs. Carenott. The principal. Random people. We had to get out!

Harry and Harvey knocked the door off its hinges. I was outside next, followed by Kyle, Leanna, Courtney and Esmé, in that order. We all escaped with no time to spare; as soon as the dirty blonde Esmé was out, the doorway caved in. The seven of us were the only ones who'd escaped.

Once outside, not wanting to be a sitting duck, I dived into a bush. The others followed my lead. Harry squeezed into a hedge. Harvey ducked behind some trashcans. Esmé and Kyle climbed up a very leafy tree and were soon perfectly hidden. With nowhere else to hide, Leanna and Courtney looked terrified. Thinking fast, I pulled them into my bush. We all stayed silent as the UFOs continued to blast the school into oblivion. After a few minutes, I guess they thought that the school was destroyed enough, and the five ships started to fly off, presumably to find somewhere else to flatten. However, without warning, one turned and fired right at us!

The beam landed about ten feet from my bush. The gals opened their mouths to scream but I slapped a hand over both of their lips. The explosion was huge. As the dust cleared, I thought back to when I was just a little girl with no common sense. One day, I'd asked my mother, "Mommy, are there really aliens out there?"

Of course, she'd replied with, "Oh, no! Good heavens, where do children get such ideas?" Thinking back on that, I wished I could go back in time and tell my past self the truth.

"I think the coast is clear!" It had been a few seconds since the five ships had flown off to who-knows-where, and Kyle called down from his tree. As I got up, I made an "ick" face.

"Yuck! There's lip-gloss on my hands!" Everybody got out of their hiding place and joined up in the crater that the blast had just made. I shook off my hands.

"What the heck ARE those things?" Harry wondered.

"Whatever they are, they're not very friendly…" I breathed, still in shock. Courtney and Leanna were quickly re-applying their lip-gloss.

"You girls are unbelievable... No offense, Piper," Kyle muttered.

"None taken," I replied.

"Um, guys? LOOK UP!" Esmé suddenly screeched. We all did as she said.

It had been a cloudy day to start out with, but now the clouds were parting… Parting to reveal HUNDREDS of purple-topped UFOs heading straight for Jacksville! The seven of us froze, unable to tear our eyes from the terrible sight. Finally, I shrieked.

"RUN FOR IT!" My voice seemed to thaw everyone else out and seconds later, we were, well, running for it!

"Where do we go?" asked the three boys in unison. We were all dashing along the road when I saw an open hatch. I swear I felt a light bulb turn on inside my head.

"The sewer!" I shouted.

"The SEWER?" the gals all cringed in disbelief.

"It's either you get a little wet, or become alien bait. Your choice!" I said flatly. That brought them to their senses. A bit.

"Ick! It's all slimy!" moaned Courtney, peering into our refuge. The Knuckle Bros. jumped in first.

"C'mon, Courtney!" After saying that, Kyle grabbed her and the two hurried into the underground. I did the same with Esmé.

"LEANNA! HURRY!" the six of us cried. With a yelp, she tumbled in. We were safe… For now…


	4. Chapter 4: Close Encounters

**Narrator: K**

Aliens. Great. As if my life needed _more_ drama… The sewer was wet, slimy and absolutely disgusting (and that's not mentioning the smell) but I would gladly choose it over freaky aliens with lasers.

"Eww! Eww! Eww!" the Gal Pals chanted.

"Shut up already!" Piper barked, obviously losing her patience quickly. Leanna hurried over to Harvey and swooned.

"Will you protect me?" she asked dreamily, batting her eyelashes like someone had just thrown sand in her face. Esmé and Courtney did the same thing to Harry at the exact same time. The guys looked mortified (it was actually kind of funny!).

"Uh…" Harvey stammered.

"Um…" Harry stuttered.

"Cripes," Piper murmured. We stepped away from them for a brief moment

"Man, it's a good thing we escaped!" I said.

"Yep," my friend replied nonchalantly.

"Piper?"

"Hmm?"

"… Thank you for helping me. Without you, I'd have been dead meat." I felt my cheeks getting hot. Was I blushing...?

"You're welcome. We'd better start assessing," she muttered.

"What?"

"Okay! People! Let's get it together! Everyone over here!" she called. The Knuckle Bros looked relieved and they hurried over real quick. The gals were reluctant but came either way.

"You want me to protect you too, babe?" Harvey asked in a flirty tone. I tried to hide my anger (or was it jealousy…?).

"NO. I'm FINE," Piper growled. Thank goodness! "Listen, what do we know about this situation?" she asked, changing the subject.

"Huh?" Esmé didn't understand the question.

"What. Do. We. Know. About. What. Is. Happening. Right. Now?" my friend repeated slowly. She was taking charge really quick. Thank goodness again! I don't know what I would've done if I'd had to lead the group…

"Um… We know there are aliens."

"Brilliant observation, Leanna." The gal smiled, completely missing the sarcasm oozing from Piper's voice.

"We know they can mutate people into purple mushrooms," I peeped, trying to be helpful.

"Yes. What else? Well, we know they have advanced technology. UFOs, lasers, who knows what else they have?"

"Um…"

"That was a rhetorical question, Courtney," Piper sighed.

"Hey. Dudes? What do the aliens look like?" wondered Harry. Without warning, we all heard a very strange sound behind Harvey. We all spun and Harvey yelped.

"… I'm guessing they look like THAT," I whispered shakily.

All seven of us were staring at creatures about three feet tall with two claws on each arm, two red eyes and deep purple skin. There were white spots on top of their mushroom-shaped heads. In fact, the creatures _themselves_ sorta looked like mushrooms! There were three in the sewer with us.

"Did anyone… close the hatch?" Piper slowly asked. The answer, it appeared, was 'no'. The things looked pretty freaky… The gals screamed at exactly the same time. I found out that the sound we'd just heard was the alien language. They didn't seem to take kindly to the high-pitched shrieking, and appeared to be telling the gals off. With a few spins (just for show), they pulled out ray guns and aimed them right at us! They called over to us, but no one could understand a single word.

"Somebody close the hatch before more come down!" I yelled. The Knuckle Bros practically trampled each other to get underneath the hatch. They couldn't quite reach it, so Harry climbed onto Harvey's shoulders. They were pretty unbalanced! Meanwhile, three beams of weird pink energy came flying at the Gal Pals. Luckily, they ducked at the last second and the beams took a chunk out of the wall instead of them!

"WHOA!" After unsuccessfully trying to close the hatch, the Knuckle Bros toppled over and landed on two of the three aliens. As the humans got up, we caught a glimpse of the after-effects of their 'attack'. The two creatures had fallen to the floor, unconscious. Everybody stared… and then we turned our attention to the last extraterrestrial. Piper approached it and the thing drew its weapon. Before it could fire, the ray gun was knocked from its grasp. I watched in awe as my neighbor pummeled the alien. Finally, when it seemed good and KO'd, she turned to us and grinned.

"You know what? That was cool."

"Cool? Are you nuts?" Courtney yelped. I was shaking uncontrollably and with good reason! Harvey struck a pose and flexed his muscles.

"I did good, didn't I, Piper?"

"Marvelous," she replied, rolling her eyes. I eyed the fallen creatures.

"Guys? It's not safe here," I peeped.

"Yeah! The aliens might wake up!" For once, Leanna had taken _my_ side! Wow…

"I mean it's not safe **here**. You know, in Jacksville," I corrected.

"Right!" With that, Piper began to head down the sewer.

"Where are you going?" I asked, running up beside her.

"To the airport!" she answered. The Gal Pals and the Knuckle Bros took one last look at the aliens and decided that coming with us would be safer than staying here!


	5. Chapter 5: Speaking Clearly

**Author's note: OKAAAAY! So I fought with myself for a while on whether or not to delete this story. In the end, I decided to keep it. I just didn't like some of the names I was using in this story, and I figured I might use them in a different project I work on. So, let's review who we have here…**

**Piper McAlister: A girl who'd rather read books or watch sci-fi movies than waste time buying designer clothes and such. Very headstrong and not afraid to say what she thinks.**

**Kyle Carlson: Neighbors and friends with Piper. Shy and timid, but intelligent. He's not physically strong, but he tries to make up for it in any way he can. **

**Leanna Lopez: Leader of the 'Gal Pals'. A girly-girl and fashionista to the extreme. Cares more about her looks than anything else, really. Totally in love with Harvey.**

**Esmé Sampson: A sucker for romance novels and cheesy soap operas. One of the Gal Pals. She's smarter than the other two gals, but that's not saying much. **

**Courtney Keenan: The final member of the Gal Pals. She and Esmé both have killer crushes on Harry, and always wind up competing for his attention. **

**Harvey Hersenburger: A typical jock; muscular and strong, but really stupid. He makes up half of the Knuckle Bros. along with his twin brother. **

**Harry Hersenburger: The other half of the Knuckle Bros. He enjoys playing football, just like his brother. Also enjoys pounding Kyle just for fun. Both Knuckle Bros. have a crush on Piper. **

**So, with that out of the way, let's continue!**

**Narrator: P**

I know it was awful, but I had no choice but to leave my parents behind. By now, they were probably hideous purple funguses and I wasn't exactly sure if those aliens took prisoners. As I thought about my mother and father, I willed myself not to cry. Crying would make me look weak, and in the group I was in, _someone_ had to take charge! I wondered if the others had realized what I had. You know, about our parents.

"I can't believe you fought an alien and _won_!" Kyle exclaimed as we hurried along.

"Well, there's something off my bucket list!" I chuckled. Behind us, the others weren't quite in good moods.

"How long until we're at the airport?" Esmé whined.

"Carry me," Courtney pleaded with Harry. He looked mortified by the request.

"Are you crazy?!" he spluttered. "There's no way I'm gonna–"

"Shut up. Don't move," I ordered suddenly, coming to a halt.

"What's the matter, babe?" Harvey asked, completely ignoring what I'd just said. I shushed him, and everyone froze.

"Did anybody hear that?" I inquired in a hushed tone.

"What?" Kyle wondered. An ominous sound echoed behind us. It sounded like footsteps!

"That," I replied quietly.

"Um… Yeah, I think I heard it," my friend shakily muttered.

We all spun and looked in the opposite direction.

"HEY! Weird alien mushroom things! Leave us alone!" Harvey shouted. The two aliens that the Knuckle Bros. had crushed were still lying there in an unconscious heap, but the one I'd roughed up was gone. I drew in a sharp breath.

"Where'd it go?" Harry wondered.

"We have to move! Now!" I broke into a sprint. Soon, everyone else was running like I was. It _really_ wasn't safe here!

Thankfully, we soon found the hatch that led to the airport. Harvey had to hoist us one at a time onto his shoulders since we were all too short to get out. He handled five of us with ease (and then Harry almost crushed him). Then, Kyle, the gals, Harry and I formed a human chain and pulled Harvey out. Finally, we all gaped at our destination. It looked… different!

"They've, like, taken over!" Leanna groaned. Besides the unnecessary 'like', she'd summed it up pretty good.

They were everywhere: patrolling the outside, flying overheard in UFOs, I could even see some inside the building! As I peered in through the airport windows, I noticed a different kind of creature. In every available window, there was a yellow thing with strange glasses working on some kind of gizmo. These creatures looked nearly identical to the ones we'd seen before, aside from the color and glasses.

Kyle was spying on the place behind a sign, and the rest of us joined him quickly.

"What're those things inside?" Harry whispered.

"I think they're…" Kyle began.

"Scientists," I finished.

"What are they working on?" Esmé wondered. Nobody answered. We were all staring at what was going on about twenty feet away.

There were two purple things guarding the front door to the airport. The door suddenly opened from the inside, and a yellow being hurried out. Greeting the door guards in their weird language, the yellow thing proceeded to give both of them a strange device. The gizmos looked like the kind of microphone that hooks around your head. There was even a microphone-shaped part that would rest just in front of their mouths!

The guards hooked the gadgets around their awkwardly shaped heads. Following the scientist's demonstration, they turned the machines on with their claws. One purple dude said something in their language, and less than a second later, something happened that scared the life outta me.

The voice of the alien came out of the microphone bit in front of its mouth. The thing is, its voice came out in English!

"Is this how it works?" All three of them were completely stunned. The guy who'd just spoken slapped his claws over his mouth in surprise. So that machine was a translator! I tried to work things out in my head. Thanks to this new invention, whatever they said came out in their language first, and then the gizmo turned it into English! How advanced were these things?!


	6. Chapter 6: Infiltration

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Well, I got distracted for awhile and I haven't been posting much of anything. Sorry. I'm lazy.**

**Narrator: K**

It was pure insanity watching these things. How had they adapted so quickly? I felt myself trembling as the sheer reality of the situation started sinking in. If these aliens were so smart… how could we possibly hope to beat them? The yellow scientist was obviously happy over the success of his invention, and he practically skipped back inside the airport, leaving the two guards alone with their new devices.

"What an odd language those creatures have!" the first guard exclaimed, the English translation coming from the device around his head.

"Our language is just fine, thank you very much," Piper muttered to herself.

"It's certainly a good thing that these things work in reverse as well!" the second guard stated, motioning to the piece of the device that hooked around his head. "Whenever we hear one of those things speaking in their _ridiculous_ language, it will automatically be translated for us to understand."

My body went absolutely rigid. Now we could understand them, and they could understand us! The language barrier between humans and aliens had been broken. The first guard grinned a haunting grin.

"These should help with the prisoners!" he giggled, and his buddy started trembling with excitement.

"Don't get us so worked up! _She_'ll let us know when we can have our fun!" the second thing reminded.

'She'? Who was 'she'? I exchanged a few glances with my human allies, and they all looked as confused as I was. Meanwhile, one of the guards clicked his claws together in anticipation.

"Soon, all of this world will be under Shroob control!" he cackled. Shroobs… So that's what they were called. The enemy finally had a name. Yikes…

I was so absorbed by their evil conversation that I forgot that I was behind that sign with six other people. I forgot, that is, until a hand shook me by the shoulder.

"Hey! There's a secret staff entrance in the back! C'mon, Kyle!" Piper hissed in my ear. I blinked and inched closer to everyone else, suddenly feeling vulnerable.

"We'd better go one at a time," said Harvey.

"That's the smartest thing I've ever heard you say," replied Piper.

"Who should go first?" I squeaked. The Knuckle Bros. and the Gal Pals all stared at me. Oh no…

"_I'll_ go," snapped Piper. … Thank goodness she's braver than I am!

The aliens – I mean, Shroobs – at the door were still talking, so they weren't a big problem. Getting into a sprinter's pose, Piper counted down silently and then took off. She was fast, dashing behind trashcans and signs like she was avoiding sniper fire as she worked her way towards the back of the building. In less than a minute, she was out of sight.

Harvey went next, followed by Harry, Esmé, Courtney and Leanna. Soon, I was the only one left. I'd never been more nervous in my whole life. I took a long, deep breath to calm my nerves, and then I hurried out into the open… And then I tripped. I scrambled behind a nearby trashcan and stayed absolutely still for several minutes. Had anyone seen me? I coaxed myself out after I got my breath back, and fortunately, things went smoothly from there.

I met up with the other six next to the back entrance.

"What took ya so long?!" Harry demanded.

"Give him a break, for goodness sake! It's been a crazy day!" Piper countered.

"It's a good thing the back door's unguarded," I breathed with relief. That broke up the argument.

"Yeah… I guess…" Harry murmured. Leanna pushed on the door.

"It won't open!" she screeched. My blood ran cold. Piper studied the door.

"It says 'pull to open', dimwit!" she snapped.

"Oh. Oops!" Leanna giggled like a ditz.

After a quick pull, the door swung open, and we all hurried inside. We soon found ourselves in one of those waiting rooms where you sit for hours and hope that your plane doesn't get delayed.

"I'm soooo hungry! I'm, like, STARVING to death!" Courtney started randomly griping. I buried my face in my hands. Seriously…?

"Ignore it, will you?" Piper muttered in disgust.

"But I have hunger pangs! HUNGER PANGS!" Courtney wailed.

"Shut up!" Piper growled.

"Someone's coming!" Esmé whisper-shouted.

We all dived to hide underneath the closest row of seats. I stayed very still and forced myself not to think of all the chewed gum right above my head. Two pairs of yellow Shroob feet walked by. Scientists. They must've been wearing translators.

"He said what?!" one cried.

"Are you hard of hearing?" the other retorted.

"What? No! I just can't believe it!"

"Well, that's what he said…" What were they talking about?

The feet stopped in front of Esmé.

"Survivors in the underground… How many did he report?"

"Seven. None fully matured yet."


End file.
